J. N. Lapointe Co. was established in 1912 by Joseph Napoleon Lapointe immediately after he left his previous business, Lapointe Machine Tool Co. of Hudson, Mass. See the entry for that firm for more of the inter-twined history of the new companies.
In 1917, Joseph N. Lapointe sold his controlling interest in the business. He agreed to stay on for one year and then stay out of the broaching business for 10 years. He died in 1928, just as this term as expiring. It appears that his namesake company did not long survive him.
Lapointe's sons, Francis "Frank" Lapointe and Ralph Lapointe, both worked for their father at Lapointe Machine Tool Co., and then J. N. Lapointe Co. Frank showed an outstanding aptitude for machine design and made significant improvements to his father's machines. In 1919, following J. N. Lapointe's leaving the business, Frank and a half-dozen other employees left J. N. Lapointe Co. and moved to the mid-west to be closer to broaching machinery customers and to pursue business in the burgeoning automobile industry. American Broach & Machine Co. was established in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was very successful.
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